John Whalen, PhD

John Whalen, PhD

11.8K Subscribers

CEO, AI Research Leader, Cognitive Scientist, O'Reilly Author

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John Whalen, PhD will transform your research with Agentic AI

I’m CEO of Brilliant Experience, have a PhD in cognitive science, and wrote Design for How People Think (O’Reilly).

For 20 years, I’ve helped teams at companies like Google, GSK, and Capital One better understand their customers, capture insights, and build better products.

When AI started reshaping research, I got curious and learned. My team ran “AI vs. Humans” studies to see where AI excels, where human judgment matters most, and how to effectively blend both.

I’ll teach you how to create trustworthy AI research workflows that let you trace every step and insight.

Then advance to the next course and learn to orchestrate agentic research teams, work strategically with synthetic users grounded in real data, and bring in human judgement so you can scale research without losing rigor.

Key Clients
Google
Capital One
Bloomberg
GSK
Pinterest

Alumni reviews

Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users

This course was stellar!
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Grace

June 2026
Vice President, UX Research Lead · JPMorgan Chase

Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users

I can highly recommend Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users. John Whalen is an exceptional instructor who combines deep expertise with a practical, generous teaching style. Rather than focusing on theory alone, the course is hands-on and immediately applicable, making it easy to integrate the concepts into real client work. As a UX designer, this course has elevated how I approach research. I now build custom AI workflows that help streamline research planning, accelerate synthesis, and support exploratory analysis. Learning how to create and validate synthetic users has also given me a powerful way to test ideas, generate hypotheses, and complement human research throughout the design process. The biggest value isn't just learning new AI tools—it's learning a new way of thinking about research. The course shows how to design repeatable, scalable workflows that allow you to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time interpreting insights and solving meaningful user problems. If you're a UX researcher, UX designer, service designer, or anyone looking to integrate Agentic AI into your research practice, this course is well worth your time. It's one of the most practical AI courses I've taken, and the techniques have become part of my everyday workflow.

Tine

June 2026
Senior CX / UX Consultant · Jakala

Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users

Once again, John strikes a great balance between the practical and provocative. The hands-on assignments are incredibly relevant to so many different skill sets, and the discussions of 'what now, what's next' drive home the true potential of the tools by inviting us to keep reimagining (and challenging) their application.
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Kerry

June 2026
UX Researcher, Owner · Kerry UXR

Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users

I took another of John Whalen's courses, so it should tell you something that I came back for a second one.
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Dan

June 2026
UX Researcher · Amazon Lab126

Agentic AI for Research: Build Custom Workflows & Synthetic Users

I was a bit intimidated by this course. I don't have a technical bone in my body. However, John's patient and encouraging manner, humor, and ability to break highly complex concepts into manageable chunks made everything feel doable. It was challenging in the best way, and sometimes even fun! I felt stretched but supported and nothing felt completely out of reach. Highly recommended.
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Anna

June 2026
Director User Research · Independent